Out of over 250,000 apps in the Android Market, only 50 occupy the majority of users' time

Few of you would probably be aware of that, but the market analysis experts at Nielsen launched an Android app of their own recently, through which they can gather usage data from Android users for statistical purposes. Well, the first batch of numbers is out so let us take a look at the pretty graphs and see what information the guys have come up with.

According to the study, a typical Android user spends almost an hour a day interacting with their handsets. About two thirds of that time accounts for using applications while the remaining one third is occupied by surfing the web. That seems pretty logical since most of the stuff that one would usually do online – checking their email, updating their Facebook status, tweeting about what is going on, watching a YouTube video and even getting their daily dose of lolcats can be easily done through a dedicated app.

Another interesting thing that the study discovered is that the top 50 most popular Android apps account for 61% of all users' time spent on interacting with their smartphone while the remaining hundreds of thousands applications in the Android Market get little to no attention whatsoever. This seems to be another case of quality over quantity as a smartphone user would not really need to carry around a thousand apps installed on their device. Instead, having a few that simply work appears to be a much better option. Still, the data may be pretty disturbing for those who want to make the world aware of a newly-developed application that is on par or even superior to the competition since bringing it to the attention of the customers may prove to be quite a challenge.

How about you? Do you stick to the Android apps that you know and love or prefer browsing through the market looking for gems that have yet to be discovered? Feel free to share your thoughts by dropping a comment below.

13 Comments

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And fanboys say Android is best because it's got apps! What's the use of plethora of apps if only few are used? Out of 50, 45 apps would be such which can be found for every platform. So one shouldn't choose a whole platform for those 5 apps(which they find after choosing the platform)!
Unique looking platforms like WP7 and MeeGo should be considered instead.

2.Dman (unregistered)

Na, I'm not. iOS is bragged about apps by its manufacturer and Android by fanboys (I would like Nielsen to do the same thing for iOS to see how much worth the brags are of). It's normal for manufacturers to brag. . .

3.AppleFUD (unregistered)

The whole app argument from apple and apple fans has come about because for the first time apple finally has a platform that has more than 50 apps/programs lol. . . so, Steve has to crow on and on about it. When in reality no one has 300K apps installed on their device, not even 1K apps and rarely anyone has ~100. That's the whole joke of these fantards spewing this ridiculous argument that such and such iDevice is better because it has oh so many more apps. . . .

If we actually followed their logic then every iPad user should immediately run out and buy a Windows 8 tablet when they hit the market. . OH wait, they should have purchased a Windows 7 tablet instead of the iPad too begin with because IT HAS MORE APPS.

STUPID!

Look at every platform that you can find the apps YOU need and make your decision on your needs and not some ridiculous argument about the number of apps available, of which 90+% are bookmarks/repackaged web sites and/or utter crap apps.

4.JeffdaBeat (unregistered)

I don't think that all smartphone OS have to live and die by the apps they have available. People will use their smartphones as they see fit and if they don't like the environment of one OS, they will move on to the next. We all have our opinions on Android (Lord knows I do), but Google is doing something right because people are making a mass exodus away from it. They may just not have a big use for Apps. That's the culture of Android. It's not every user, but most. Nothing wrong with that...

JeffdaBeat, when you say, people are making a mass exodus away from Android OS, what are you talking about? Google's Android OS, currently covers about two fifth's of the market; Blackberry, one fifth of the market; & Apple, a little over one forth. Oh yea, & this is just the in the, United States, not worldwide. Are you sure you didn't mean software developers? I have heard software developers prefer to develop software for other platforms at the moment, but Android is not being abandoned. I'm sure Google will take the appropriate action to make Android more attractive to the developers.

8.thinnairr (unregistered)

For me, I would totally search out more apps if it didn't slow down my D2 so much. I'm still waiting for some sort of app bookmarking feature/app which would allow me to more app searching.
Perhaps ironically however, I sorta gave up looking for it..so maybe there is an app and I'm just a 'typical Android user.'

9.XpAcErX (unregistered)

i keep around 130 apps on my phone at any time.. i have more frozen by Titanium. Id say about... 1/2 are games, the rest are useful apps.

Personally I like to try new things. Most people though just go to market, go to "reccomended" or "top paid/free" and just choose from that list. That doesnt mean thats where they stop.. thats just were they start. Im sure the statistics would be very familiar on iOS or any other OS at that.

It's nice to have apps when you need them. For example I was selling a car and downloaded the Kelly blue book app. It was much more convenient then going to the website. It's not an app I'd use daily or even monthly, but when I need it iOS has me covered.

ya, same app on android.. and about 400 other car apps with different features. point?

at least with android when you find a car to buy, the app will pull up that beautiful 3d turn by turn voice guided navigation and take you right to it.. and then show it on street view in google maps as well. :) You get a neat line on a flat map. its magical.

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